Big Trash Day

Every year, Salt Lake City has a summer-long festival called Big Trash Day. It rotates throughout the neighborhoods in the city, each neighborhood having its own celebration. Last year my neighborhood had Big Trash Day in June, this year it's this week.

Big Trash Day is an opportunity for manly men to prove their might by constructing the biggest heap of junk for the city to haul away. The Engineer and our across the street neighbor, Dr. G., a semiretired ear, nose and throat specialist, have been in serious competition since we moved into this house seven Big Trash Days ago. The Engineer usually wins. It's close this year, though.

Dr. G's pile is longer this year. In addition to the usual yard waste, it contains broken pots and pieces of shelving.

The Engineer's is taller and contains the best parts of our junipers (see a rant about that here) as well as lots of blue board insulation and detritus from our year of remodeling. The office chair in front of the heap has lost pressure in the gas cylinder that facilitates changing the height of the seat. This was quite entertaining, as you never knew when the cylinder was going to give a gusty sigh and drop your derriere to the floor. Since we live in one of the nicer neighborhoods, many trash picker trucks cruise the streets looking for good junk. Some specialize. The aluminum picker came by this morning and pulled out the tracks for our defunct vertical blinds. He left the blinds themselves.

The office chair didn't last long at all before it disappeared. Bet somebody gets a surprise when they try it out...